Japan to aid state’s first green industrial estate

State will have its first eco-friendly industrial estate in Shendra near Aurangabad, some 400 km from Mumbai. The Japanese government will grant funds for the project, and its experts will work on it later this year, reports Dharmendra Jore.

State will have its first eco-friendly industrial estate in Shendra near Aurangabad, some 400 km from Mumbai. The Japanese government will grant funds for the project, and its experts will work on it later this year.

Shendra will be one of the three pollution-free industrial estates in the country to be set up in association with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The other two will come up in Haryana and Gujarat.

Shendra will be developed along the lines of Kitakyushu in Japan. Once one of the most polluted industrial cities in Japan, Kitakyushu has now emerged as a smart city, where all kinds of industrial waste — including that generated from automobiles, home appliances, medical instruments, construction, food processing and plastic — are recycled by private companies.

Shendra’s current facility, run by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), is home to multinationals such as Skoda, which has an automobile unit. A special economy zone has also been planned there. Industry Minister Rajendra Darda told Hindustan Times that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan during his recent visit there.

Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corpor-ation (DMICDC) will be the nodal agency. DMICDC is a 1,483-km dedicated freight corridor passing through five states before reaching Maharashtra. Shendra falls in that corridor. That’s why it was chosen for the project.

Explaining the concept — also called ‘Smart Cities in India’ — Darda said the project will bring together citizens, businesses and governments to ensure eco-friendly and zero-carbon products and services.

MIDC’s CEO, Kshatrapati Shivaji said Japan will fund and carry out experiments, followed by private investments through companies like Toshiba, Itochu, Mitsubishi and Mitsui by 2011. The total investment could be up to Rs 100 crore.